My favorite quote

"I just wanted to tell you that your kids are the ONLY reason I will have kids when I'm older..."
Helen. 7/24/09

Words to live by

If it is to be, it is up to me.

Monkey kisses

Happy birhtday, Daddy!!!


Jack calls me "Mama" now. It makes me sad that he isn't calling me "Mommy" but the way he calls me "Mama" is so very sweet. Now Wyatt is also calling me "Mama". It is too soon for me to not be Mommy anymore!!!! I asked Jack a few days ago if he would sometimes call me Mommy. He looked at me and said "Ok...Mama." STINKER!!!

Wyatt now likes to give me Monkey kisses. I opt for Monkey air kisses...


I have been in rehearsals the past three weeks. Since I don't get home till after the boys are in bed, I have been taking advantage of my morning time at home with Wyatt to have some special time with him. We have been having wii time each morning. We have had lunch time picnics on the kitchen floor. We have spent some cuddle time together and we have deep conversations while I massage his leg. We talk about things like cars and trucks, trains and dogs, Super Mario Brothers and how to jump on the bad guys to beat them. (He is trying to help me with my game.) As much as I like our private time in the mornings, I will be glad to get back to being at home in the evenings next week.

What else is new? Jack has started another season of soccer.


He has also joined the Boy Scouts and is now an official Bobcat. John has signed on as the Den Leader so I will let you all know when the popcorn sales begin (think 2 days!)

The school auction is right around the corner, so if you want to buy a ticket to the auction (I am in charge of the miscellaneous committee) or if you want to buy a raffle ticket for the car that is being raffled off, drop me a line! We have also started the student's first fundraiser of the year. They are selling chocolates and wrapping paper through a company called Innisbrook. Needless to say, we are up to our eyeballs in selling things. E-mail, call or facebook me if you are interested in contributing to the fundraising efforts!

Lastly - for anyone who wants to see a bit of a weekly progression on Wy's leg in pictures - you can look to the sidebar on the left of the screen and click on shutterfly under linky dinks. Wy's pictures are in the album "Wy runned over by a car."

"Did you know I got runned over by a car?"

I think most of you know that the last two weeks have been insane. Devon called about 4 a.m. on the 24th (it is NEVER good when you get a phone call at 4 a.m.)She was telling me she had just gotten back from a concert and couldn't get into her apartment because part of it was on fire and the police wouldn't let her in -and- she couldn't get a hold of her kids who were IN the apartment. I grabbed Mom and Dad and off we went. A few minutes before we got to the apartment Devon called to say Jess had woken up, figured out what was happening and got the kids out safely. We are VERY fortunate at the fire happened 3 doors down from the girls' 3rd floor apartment and traveled down instead of towards the neighboring apartments on that floor. Unfortunately their apartment is unlivable. We brought Devon and the gang over to our house until their living arrangements can get figured out.
My power steering went out the next day so on Monday John took my car in to the shop. When Wy and I picked up John Wy exclaimed "Mommy! Daddy! I can see the Eiffel Tower!"

My car wasn't going to be ready until Tuesday morning so I borrowed Mom's car and took her to Work Tuesday and John took the boys to day care. I was on the highway when I got a terrifying phone call from John. I could hear Wyatt screaming in the background and a woman saying "Keep him still". John couldn't hear me over all the commotion and finally told me I needed to get to the sitter's house immediately. Of course the section of highway I was on is under construction with no exit from 103rd to 75th street and it was the morning rush hour...
When I finally made it to the sitter's there were 2 fire trucks, 2 ambulances and 3 cop cars surrounding her house. Paramedics were telling me they needed to take John to Overland Park regional because they were worried about his seriously low blood pressure and they needed to take Wyatt to Children's Mercy downtown. I knew I was going with Wyatt but I froze in a logistical nightmare of cars (mine was in the show and now we were leaving both John's truck and my mom's car at the sitter's house) and what I was going to do about the 11:00 show that morning. There was a nice lady who said "Why don't we get your things so you can go with your son?" So that's what we did. Another paramedic stopped me before getting into the ambulance to talk to me about how Wyatt needed me and would react based on my reactions so he needed me to keep cool. Now I'm completely freaked out because I still have no idea what has happened. The EMTs helped me into the ambulance and Wy was velcroed within an inch of his life to a board and gurney. The ladies in the ambulance explained Wyatt had been backed over by a car and that shortly after the emergency team arrived John's blood pressure took a nose dive.
I could go on and on about everything but to give a quick summary: another mother was leaving the day care and backing her car out. John had Jack's hand and Wy was between them. They were trying to walk away from the car but it bumped John and then backed over Wyatt.
John convinced the EMTs he did not need to go to the hospital so they hung out with him until his BP was stable. Wy has 2 broken collar bones, a fractured rib on the right, a tiny puncture in the right lung (which has probably closed up by now), a little bit of air in the intestine (which worked its way out), road rash on his left ear, left lower back, left calf and a huge horrible wound on his right knee. The medical team decided the knee needed to be treated as a 3rd degree burn since there was no skin left to close the wound. The E.R. kept us over night to monitor the lung, intestine and knee. (This is a picture I took of Wy and I cuddling in the hospital bed. He was upset and even after meds couldn't settle down so I slipped in behind him and he went right to sleep.)

We saw the burn unit the next morning and they said the knee was bad enough we could stay a 2nd night, which we did. The following morning the ladies in the burn unit showed John and I how to care for Wy's knee and we were discharged on Thursday.

Things were going OK at home but cleaning the knee was very upsetting to everyone. By Sunday night John and I just weren't sure we were doing it properly and called the burn unit who asked us to come in the following afternoon. They told us were were taking care of the knee properly but that the tissue that needed to come (escar) out was too thick so they were going to have to do it in the hospital. After an out patient treatment they let us know they were going to have to remove the escar in surgery and do a skin graft.

Wednesday was a long day of waiting. The surgical burn team had a patient already scheduled on Wednesday and it was a situation that could take 2 hours or 4 hours. I think it was the kid in the room next to ours and that child was gone all day. I thought for sure we were going to be bumped to Thursday but at 6:00 a few nurses came in to say they were going to take Wy to the O.R. in the next 5 minutes. Wow! Wy got in for surgery Wednesday evening around 7 and was in recovery longer than he was in surgery! The Dr's did a full thickness skin graft from the groin (they removed an entire section of skin instead of scraping off the top few layers), stitched everything up and put Wy in a splint from his upper thigh to his toes. They also sent us home with a walker as he isn't supposed to put any weight on his right leg until we get the OK at his follow up next week. The next morning he looked at his nurse and said "Did you know I got runned over by a car?"

The nurses told me they were happy Wy was healing but they wanted to keep him around for a little bit longer. He is definitely a favorite and one they will miss.

When we got home and settled in Jack wanted to be as helpful as possible. He walked up to Wyatt and said "Wyatt, I will get any toy you want and bring it to you. I will do anything you want." He paused for a moment "But I won't pull down my pants and my underwear and show you my butt." This was said in all seriousness - as if he were just laying down his boundaries.

John and Wy were talking later that night and Wyatt said "Daddy, my bones are pretty strong, right?" John said "Yes, they are buddy." Wyatt thought for a second then said "But not when they get runned over by a car, right, Daddy?" "That's right, buddy." John said.

Wyatt asks everyone who comes to visit "Did you know I got runned over by a car?"

We have a follow up appointment for the collar bones and rib on Tuesday then we are back again on Thursday for a follow up on the knee.
I'm grateful Wy is safe and all of his injuries will heal. I'm grateful for the concern, prayers, love and support from my friends and family. I'm also grateful for the incredible spirit that lives in my unstoppable boy.

I'm sure I missed things you want to know - post a query and I will fill in the details. I will keep you posted as we head down the healing highway.
Love and blessings,
amy & the gang.

Uh-b'ya-b'ya

My sister-in-law was in China recently. She brought back a singing top for the boys. It has a crank that you fit into the top of the top and use it to crank it up. Then you set it on the floor and click it. The top separates from the handle and starts playing music and blinking colored lights as it spins. The boys call it the "Uh-b'yah-b'yah" because that is what it sounds like the people are singing on this song.

I pick up the majority of my groceries at the Aldi. You either bring your own bags or you snag empty boxes throughout the store and you bag your own groceries. There are usually a few stray boxes at the bagging counter and Wyatt considers it a score when there are boxes big enough to play in. He was growling "MERRR" at me when I snapped this picture. (In my house "MERRR" is an expression of extreme displeasure. You can often hear me saying "Don't you 'MERRR' me, young man!"

Jack likes "skits" - skittles

Jack looked at me the other night and said "I want you to make me a Triple B Sandwich, OK?" I stared at him blankly. "You know," he said "A bread, butter and bacon sandwich." Of course! How could I have forgotten about Triple B Sandwiches?

We celebrated John's birthday a few weeks ago. For dessert we went to Applebee's. There are TVs all over the place and different sporting events on each TV. Wy was obsessed with the TV with the 2 guys hitting each other. John and I explained that the fellas were boxing and that they rules and can only hit each other while they are in the ring. As we were leaving Wyatt said "I want to go some place where I can put on blue gloves, take off my shirt and punch other kids. Yeah!" When we told him this wasn't going to work out he asked "Can we go some place where Daddy can put on blue gloves, take off his shirt and punch a A-dult?"

The Green Store has presents too.

I do all my errands on Mondays; bank, grocery, post office, clean the fridge... a few weeks ago Jack kept asking if we could "go to the green store" for him to get me a present. (The green store is the Walmart grocery.) I was very flattered but not sure there was anything at the Green Store that I wanted as a gift. Just after we walked in Jack had me stop right in the middle of the entryway and promise to close my eyes. I cheated by closing them enough so I could see where he was. He told me I could open my eyes and this is what I saw:

As we neared the checkout I was calculating how much money was in the grocery cart and asked Jack if we could put back the flowers. He was very upset until I pulled out the camera and showed him this picture. I explained that the flowers would die soon but that I would always have this picture of him giving me flowers - so I would ALWAYS have flowers from Jack. He agreed that the picture was better and he liked his silly face too.